Abstract
Purpose: to assist the radiology community with new ways to improve hospital sustainability
Method: Following standard life cycle assessment protocols to measure energy from diagnostic x-ray exams then expanding the study to all U.S. hospital electrical energy related to x-ray Department usage. In addition, all the fuel energy used to generate electricity and to manufacture x-ray consumables were measured to quantify the hidden public health effects. Additionally, the energy use related to anatomical parts and patient scheduling will be determined as areas for improvement.
Results: The in-hospital energy use for a single x-ray diagnostic image is in the range of 0.49 to 0.74 kWh per x-ray image (2.25 to 3.24 kWh per patient) for the x-ray scanners, ancillary devices, and lighting fixtures. The out-of-hospital energy consumption (fuel for generation of electricity for the hospital plus energy to manufacture the disposables consumables and process reusable textiles) is about 300% larger than the in-house energy (7.08 to 9.28 kWh per patient). The CO2eq for the entire x-ray service on a per patient basis is 2.0 to 2.7 kg CO2eq per-patient.
Conclusion: The transparent, detailed life cycle approach allows the data from this study to be used by radiologists to examine details of direct and unseen energy impacts of x-ray diagnostic images for patients (not radiation-related). The actual active patient scan energy that produces the x-ray images is only about 0.3% of the total life cycle energy. There are some environmental differences between these two x-ray machines, but not substantial. The patient utilization rate and the idle energy of the x-ray and ancillary devices may offer the best alternatives to improve the environmental footprint of patient x-rays. With 600 million annual U.S. x-ray images, the public health impacts on society’s public health are now measured in this paper.